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Miscellanies

So back in late August my roommate, Colette, and I were unpacking and she told me about this drink called “The Panty Dropper.” So we innocently made this alcoholic concoction not realizing that we would be very drunk after half a glass. Not like we got drunk enough off one innocent glass to start stripping, however we do now understand why some frat-boys created the drink in the first place. So today, a week before closing night of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” I will share this drink recipe with you. Yes, this is what I plan to drink not-so-classily out of very large mason jar on Saturday night. All actors out there will understand the magnitude of a closing night party. Arlie and I have shared many stories about our various closing night shenanigans. For those non theatre people out there, it’s the one night where we get very drunk and celebrate a job well done after 6 weeks of hell.

So “The Panty Dropper” sounds disgusting. But if you feel the need to get drunk fast, it’s a great way to go. This recipe is enough to make in an ice tea container.

“THE PANTY DROPPER”

Ingredients:

A 26 of vodka.

A case of beer.

2 cans of frozen pink lemonade.

A lemon as garnish (totally optional).

Instructions:

Start by making lemonade. Except instead of using water, use the vodka. Yes that means you add around 4 cans full of vodka.

Once the vodka and lemonade concentrate mixture has been stirred together add the beer. When we first made this we used Molson Canadian, but I suggest maybe spending a little more and getting something a little better.

Add the beer to taste. Probably around 4 cans, you want enough beer so it makes the drink fizzy.

Cut up a lemon and add it into the drink for looks and to add some “fruity” taste.

For those who don’t know this about me, I am a real life Drama Queen…well not really…but I am in the BFA program at the University of Victoria in the Phoenix Theatre apart of the Acting Specialization. Over the past six weeks I have been blessed to be apart of the fantastic company of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare. We open on Thursday at the Phoenix Theatre, apart of the University of Victoria (so for those of you reading this from places other then BC…get on a plane….Arlie I am looking at you!). So for this blog post I am going to shamelessly promote my show.

The director, Fran Gebhard, has placed the Bard’s “Dream” during the late 1970s in New York’s Central Park. The lovers (Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena) are preppy Upper East Siders with wealthy parents. Theseus is a Donald Trump like character with his exotic trophy fiance from Italy, Hippolyta. Hermia’s mother, Egeus (played by yours truly), is Theseus’ ex-wife and constantly looks fabulous onstage in Chanel (typically Egeus is played by a man and has no connection to Theseus…but this is way more fun). The rustics work for Theseus as carpenters, painters, welders and Bottom is the limo driver. The world of the Upper East Side is pristine. However, a darker world is soon to unfold once the lovers find themselves in Central Park. There we find Titania’s Coven of flower power children which contrast Oberon’s gang of punk rockers.

Overall, I believe the show is going to be a great success! But then again I am pretty biased. The show runs between November 6-22. More information can be found here. You can call the Phoenix box office for tickets at (250) 721-8000 or you can check out the box office website for more information here.

Come out and see the show! You might even recognize the fantastic Levi Schneider (who plays Puck and pictured above in the poster) from I Can’t Keep A Straight Face.

We have been best friends for over 12 years, and Diva Sisters for 5. Many things have changed, but three things have not: our love of music, our love of symbolism, and our love of lists (OK, Arlie’s love of lists). So the following is a list of the top 10 songs of our friendship, in chronological order. Don’t judge us by our bad tastes in music. We have included YouTube video links to the songs and a little description so there is a method to our madness. This is just a little post to let you know a little more about us, especially since we haven’t been able to do the whole video thing while on opposite sides of the world’s second largest landmass.

1. Billy S (Skye Sweetnam) Wednesday evenings in grade 6 went like this: singing dancing along to Skye Sweetnam’s Noise From the Basement in Alannah’s mom’s car, swimming at the Y, fettuccini alfredo and Strawberry-Kiwi Snapple at Pasta Perfection.
2. Girlfriend (Avril Lavigne) Yeah so it was third-album-era Avril which was really not good but that didn’t keep us from going to the Best Damn Tour in full Avril costume and singing along to every song. Arlie dressed as Avril from the Let Go years and Alannah (sporting bleach blonde hair…a fashion statement she regrets to this day) as Avril from The Best Damn Thing.

3. If I Had $1,000,000 (Barenaked Ladies) It was the Spring of 2007, just before our friend Merritt’s 14th birthday when the three of us took a trip to a gigantic outlet mall outside of Toronto and the whole drive there and back we listened to nothing but “If I Had $1,000,000” and “Grade 9” by the Barenaked Ladies. For several years we developed a tradition of giving each other increasingly weird “fake” green dresses on our birthdays, because a real green dress would be cruel.
4. I’ll Follow You Into The Dark (DCFC) Alannah’s Dad somehow got us VIP tickets to the Stars/DCFC concert on the Toronto Island in grade 9 and we missed most of it for a reason that we don’t even want to talk about because we’re still mad. We also don’t talk much about how we discovered DCFC but it had something to do with the “Twilight Saga.” Needless to say our love for DCFC was eternal while “Twilight” was a really bad fad.
5. Pork and Beans (Weezer) Pork (Alannah) and Beans (Arlie) may be our weirdest nicknames. Yes, we do call each other Porksie and Beansie. We actually don’t remember when someone pointed out that this song existed – we hadn’t even heard it before we made it our theme song. Yes, we rewrote the lyrics to this song to fit our friendship. For the record, when we find chunky milk we pour it down the sink. But we also write our friendship in indelible ink.
6. Don’t Stop Believin’ (Glee) Arlie actually remembers the first time Alannah played this song for her – we were in the props room of our high school the summer before grade 11. The show hadn’t even aired yet and she was already a fan. We later went to the Glee Concert accurately dressed as Rachel Berry and Santana Lopez (pictured below).
7. Alone Again (Alyssa Reid feat P. Reign) Our March break 2011 trip to Hawaii was friendship-saving. Probably sharing earbuds to listen to this song a million times was a factor. Actually, on another listening of this song all these years later this song perfectly sums up what happened to us in grade 12. Well…some parts of it anyway.
8. Kindred Spirits (Anne of Green Gables) We played Anne (Alannah) and Diana (Arlie) in our high school’s production of Anne of Green Gables in grade 12. Perfect casting if we do say so ourselves.9. The Dog Days Are Over (Florence and the Machine) It was our grad song. So feelings. Very nostalgia.
10. Problem (Ariana Grande feat. Iggy Azalea) “Abababadaba badabadaba but it’s you! Ooh ooh ooh!” Arlie moved into Alannah’s house in Toronto for one night for the air conditioning and ended up crashing for 3 weeks while Alannah’s parents were gallivanting across France. This song quickly became the anthem of the summer. You may have noticed it in the No Mirror Makeup Challenge.

Shana Tova! Happy New Year! It’s the year 5775 and once again I am going through the tradition of two days of celebration filled with apples and honey later followed by a day of fasting. If you haven’t guessed yet, I am Jewish. I was born into an interfaith family and my parents “converted “ me to Judaism at birth, as my mother is not Jewish. I grew up as a member of the Danforth Jewish Circle (DJC) in Toronto; a reform synagogue that hold services in Eastminister United Church. The ceremonies to ring out the New Year are always filled with love, celebration, and a lot of home cooking. Since moving to Victoria for university three years ago, I haven’t had the time to take part in the usual festivities. But it was more than a time issue; I simply did not want to try to find a new shul. However, this year I thought I would turn over a new leaf and actually go to High Holiday services. Yet for the first time in my twenty-one years I experienced culture shock in my own culture.

Tradition is a very important aspect to Judaism. It is perfectly represented in the opening number of “Fiddler on the Roof”—the tradition of going to shul and seeing your family and friends gather, the tradition of eating together, and the tradition of celebration and reflection. With that said, I also experience certain traditions that I looked forward to every year growing up. Like the tradition of sitting in the balcony with my best friend, Sophie, and texting to each other in our prayer books, the tradition of working in child care to “get out of” fasting, the tradition of listening to the choir sing but missing the rest of the services, the tradition of hearing the first cry of the shofar. All these activities intermingled to make the New Year so important to me. And these traditions are also intertwined with memories. The memory of seeing my proud father’s face the first year I stayed through all the High Holiday services and even fasted (this was the year after my Bat Mitzvah). The memory of drinking my first glass of Kosher wine. And the memory of my last High Holiday at the DJC when I was in grade 12.

I don’t know if it was the feeling of guilt for not partaking in my religion for the past three years, or the need to find new love and experiences in a city that I have felt so much rejection from in the past year, or the need to go to Musaf services to honor the memory of my Bubbie (who passed away in February) that fed my need to partake in High Holiday services this year. But something happened within me, and I had to honor the traditions of my religion.

So here I was on the evening of September 25. I found a shul online in Victoria that looked promising. A community centre encouraging anyone to come and celebrate the New Year. So I went to their evening Rosh Hashanah services with my “goyishe” friend Lindsay in tow: after all, holidays are also about sharing with friends! But I found myself at the most orthodox shul on Vancouver Island. For a girl who grew in a reform temple this was a very different experience—filled with traditions that I had never experienced before. The whole service was in Hebrew, the Rabbi spoke with a thick accent; he seemed the cookie cutter cutout of the perfect traditional orthodox Jewish Rabbi from central casting. Hearing the services through a language that I didn’t understand was a jarring experience. I had to rely on sheer muscle memory in order to follow along (thank goodness I have an actor’s memory!). I kept nervously glancing at my friend to gauge her her experience, and by the end of the night (the evening service for Rosh Hashana is only one hour long) I felt a strong mix of emotions. Firstly, I felt incredibly homesick. It was as if I understood how the Jews felt long ago. Those celebrating away from their home country for the first time. Or how my own family must have felt during their first High Holiday services in upstate New York after fleeing Europe during the Second World War. I felt a longing for home and all of its traditions that I haven’t felt before. Secondly, I was amazed by the differences in Judaism. This orthodox shul utilized a mechitza (a divider that segregated the sexes). It was something archaic that shocked me: I believe in men and women being equal in all respects, and certainly able to reflect and pray standing beside each other. But at the end of the day, the honey cake was made with love and care, the apple and honey tasted as sweet as always, and the sense of celebration hung in the air as people mingled during the Kaddish. The energy was the same although the traditions slightly different.

For Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur services I went to a different shul, one closer to where I live and one where I could sit where I wanted. This time I went to a Conservative Egalitarian shul. Still filled with different traditions from what I have been used to, but some traditions felt closer to home. Another “goyishe” friend Tyler joined me and we both had a really great time. I think my first mistake a week previously was going into shul expecting to experience my usual traditions, only to find out that the shul was different and believed and carried out different traditions.

In the end, I am really happy that I was able to partake in High Holiday services in Victoria. However, I am making a pact with myself that from now on that I will try to go home for a portion of the holidays. Just like coming home for Christmas is so important to some people, I discovered this week that coming home for the High Holidays is really important to me. But most importantly this weekend I was able to honour the memory of my Bubbie so not only the DJC congregation remembered her this year, but so did a shul in Victoria.

I know this is an “unorthodox” (pun intended) piece for this kind of blog. But I felt the need to write this down somewhere. I need people to understand the significance of the High Holidays, a lesson that I needed to learn myself this year. Traditions are important. But sometimes you need a little change in your life in order to understand what is truly important to you. The year 5775 has barely begun and I have already learned a lot about myself through this experience.

So for my roommate’s birthday last week we played True Canadian, a Canadian twist on the drinking game made popular by the Fox television series “New Girl.” In “New Girl” the game is called “True American.” It is a great game to play with A LOT of people and you get drunk REALLY fast. The Canadian twist involves drinking the most Canadian beer you can think of, that’s right, Molson Canadian. The game itself is kind of like Candyland for grownups. I highly suggest playing in four teams of two. We ended up playing with 4 teams of three and it was really chaotic.

My roommate Colette and I have been thinking up more mini-games. Personally, I think if six mini-games are decided, you could use a dice to determine which mini-game is played. That way the leader only has a few seconds to come up with an approach to the game.

Here is a link to the YouTube video of the “New Girl” gang playing True American:

There are many variations on this game. However, below are the rules that the fabulous Colette Habel wrote out and graciously gave to me to post. These are the rules we used in celebrating her birthday. The game lasted around an hour. You can easily play more than once (and get more drunk in the process) just make sure you have A LOT of beer!:

OPTIONAL: tacky souvenir Canadian shot glass/ Canadian University shot glass.

A large living room or basement with plenty of furniture.

Lots of friends.

Chill neighbours.

Set Up:

Arrange your living room furniture into a circular obstacle course. Test drive the course making sure you can easily travel from piece of furniture to piece of furniture without touching the floor or falling and dying.

Place a table in the centre of your obstacle course, and put the bottle of hard liquor (The Prime Minister) in the centre. Arrange your many many cans of Molson (Cabinet Members) in rows extending out from the Prime Minister. The number of rows will depend on how many teams you have playing the game.

Prepare yourself for greatness.

The Basics:

The object of the game is to infiltrate Parliament and take a shot from the Prime Minister (bottle of hard liquor).

The floor is lava. CANADIAN LAVA!

Each team has a row of Cabinet Members (beers) that they must destroy (drink) to get to the Prime Minister.

Each players starts on a province (piece of furniture) with on Cabinet Member (beer) in hand.

There are four mini games that are played each round. The winners of each mini game get to drink some of their beer and move to a new province. If you lose, you must stay where you are and not touch your beer.

A shotgun tipoff starts the game. The winner of the shotgun will be the first Speaker of the House and will choose the first game to be played. The turn order is then determined by the Speaker (ie. clockwise around the room, counter clockwise, in order of age, order of birthday, etc).

You may not have more then one OPEN Cabinet Member in your hand, and you may not have more then two Cabinet Members in your hand. If you double-fist, you must wear the Box of Shame.

You may only grab a new Cabinet Member from Parliament when you are close enough to; you may toss Cabinet Members to a teammate, as long as neither you nor the can touches the lava.

When you are done your Cabinet Member, throw your empty can into the recycling bin. If you sink your can, you get a free chug from your new beer.

If you fall off your space and into the lava, you must wear the Box of Shame until the next person touches the lava.

At any point in the game, any player can yell “CBC” and everyone must yell “FLQ” and take a massive chug.

How to Win:

Once all your team’s Cabinet Members have been drunk, grab the Prime Minister and take a shot. You may only take the shot if you can reach Parliament without falling into the lava.

The Mini-Games:

Do the Count: The leader will yell “DO THE COUNT” and all the players will put a number to their forehead between 1-5. If your number matches your teammates’ number, you win the round.

Complete the Quote: The leader will begin a famous quote or saying and the other players must finish it. All players that correctly complete the quote win the round.

Guess a Trait: The leader will name two people or objects that have something in common. All players that can correctly name what they have in common win the round.

Trivia: The leader asks a trivia question about one of the other people in the room. All who correctly answer win the round. If you act like an asshole Canadian and ask a question that only your teammate knows, you must wear the Box of Shame.

So….no video again this week. We were both much too busy enjoying life. Alannah spent the latter part of the week sipping cocktails in NYC, while Arlie ran around barefoot at a folk music festival in rural Ontario. The cultural contrast between these activities is pretty extreme, but that doesn’t mean you can’t like both. Here are our biggest takeaways from the long weekend.

Alannah enjoyed If/Then, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Cabaret on Broadway.

In increasing order of realism and hilarity, we’ve been watching Sex and the City, Girls, and Broad City. All are about women living in New York City, but they all have very different depictions of friendship and love.

You may or may not have noticed that we didn’t post a video last week. We’ve both been very busy with all sorts of stuff, and the videos will resume next week. But we didn’t want to leave you hanging so here’s a collection of links from around the internet that we’ve been enjoying. Inspired by the “Here & there” posts of Arlie’s favourite blog, The Homesteady.